Russia, in adding to new blacklist, blocks site used by dissidents

Since 2012, the Kremlin has targeted drug sites—activists worry they'll be next.

On Friday, a freedom of speech activist group reported that the Russian government has blocked access to a prominent blog-hosting service that carries many dissident voices from within the countries.

Back in the fall, the Kremlin put into place a much-derided-from-the-West “Internet blacklist.” When it was launched in November, Moscow blocked access to over 180 sites that it deemed were offensive to Russian interests. In particular, this blacklist was meant as a way to protect minors from pornography sites, sexual abuse sites, and sites that provide details about drug use and suicide.

Want to see if your site is blocked in Russia? You can view the list here (Google Translate), or use Roskomnadzor’s handy online tool—that’s the Russian acronym for the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications.

LJRossia.org, “a non-profit project created to support freedom of speech, civil society, and encourage the free exchange of ideas,” is reportedly used by Russian journalists who openly speak out against the Putin government, including Andrei Malgin and Vladimir Pribylovsky. The site “has been targeted for publishing a large database of government misdeeds and for disclosing official documents that expose corruption,” according to an international non-profit group, Access.

As we’ve reported previously, the Russian government has not exactly been a paragon of Internet freedom. But the Russian Pirate Party seems to be looking for ways around this blacklisting. earlier this month, it announced that it had created a hosting service, Piratehost.net—outside the country, obviously—to cater to such “undesireable” sites.

“We will set traps to protect our friends from visits from IP addresses owned by state agencies,” the Pirate Party promised in a statement. “To this end, we will create pages to filter Roskomnadzor [the state telecom watchdog and filtering agency] and other state agencies. We will track the addresses of those logging on these marker pages and add them to our blacklist. We have a response to the blacklists imposed by officials!”

Promoted Comments

http://www.pirateshost.net/ isn't resolving. Anyone Russian (or familiar with the situation) want to explain to me how a hosting service can get past his?

Just curious; because if they're doing it by some sort of proxy, I'd imagine it wouldn't be very difficult to take down. I'm guessing it's more closer to using a VPN of some sort.

As far as the rest of the article goes, you really can't (and shouldn't) try and stop people from visiting the websites they like to visit. They will find ways around it and it will just make the censoring solution look foolish, all political ideologies aside.

http://www.pirateshost.net/ isn't resolving. Anyone Russian (or familiar with the situation) want to explain to me how a hosting service can get past his?

Just curious; because if they're doing it by some sort of proxy, I'd imagine it wouldn't be very difficult to take down. I'm guessing it's more closer to using a VPN of some sort.

As far as the rest of the article goes, you really can't (and shouldn't) try and stop people from visiting the websites they like to visit. They will find ways around it and it will just make the censoring solution look foolish, all political ideologies aside.

26 Reader Comments

http://www.pirateshost.net/ isn't resolving. Anyone Russian (or familiar with the situation) want to explain to me how a hosting service can get past his?

Just curious; because if they're doing it by some sort of proxy, I'd imagine it wouldn't be very difficult to take down. I'm guessing it's more closer to using a VPN of some sort.

As far as the rest of the article goes, you really can't (and shouldn't) try and stop people from visiting the websites they like to visit. They will find ways around it and it will just make the censoring solution look foolish, all political ideologies aside.

My bad. My rather old router supports URL blocking, I had assumed the Russian ISPs would have the ability as well to block specific URLs rather than just blank a whole site.

In theory - yes. In practice it's depends:1) Russian ISPs like (extra) work no more than the rest humans. So they often just choose easy path (block entire site or IP-address).2) Russian authorities understand Internet no more than the authorities of another countries. So they often cosplay a bull in a china shop.

Well it is Russia's country, can't they self-govern without the West's interference?

Reporting reality isn't interference. It is, you know, reporting reality. Pointing to reality and staying that it is wrong is also not "interference". They could shove babies into a furnace to heat Putin's spa without western interference if they really wanted to. I imagine someone in the west would point out that that is naughty and Russia could merrily ignore them.

The Russian government brutally cracking down on their citizens freedom of expression and restricting their access to the machinery of the government is naughty. The government also loses legitimacy when it resort to this sort of suppression. Russian citizens stop "self governing" when those citizens lose the capacity to speak, and ends up simply being the will of a handful of powerful political leaders rather than an expression of Russian will.

External criticism is healthy and good. I happen to be an American. I am a-okay with countries pointing to our incarceration rates and saying "holy shit, your drug laws are fucked!". Either the criticism is true and you should take it with good grace, or it is untrue and you are free to argue. Either way, it isn't interference to be critical or make a moral judgement.

I'm making a moral judgement. Russia's suppression of its citizen's internet access is bad. I imagine Putin is going to sleep just fine tonight despite my serious face of disappointment.

Well it is Russia's country, can't they self-govern without the West's interference?

Yes and the Decembrists, also should have shut their mouths, and the Strelsky, and well, maybe freeing the Serfs was a bad idea too after all, look what happened. And those Krondstaters, more "Westerners" meddling in the 'legitimate Russian self-government'. Surely you are right about this. Putin, a true Russian, not like these silly writers and artists.

Well it is Russia's country, can't they self-govern without the West's interference?

Yes and the Decembrists, also should have shut their mouths, and the Strelsky, and well, maybe freeing the Serfs was a bad idea too after all, look what happened. And those Krondstaters, more "Westerners" meddling in the 'legitimate Russian self-government'. Surely you are right about this. Putin, a true Russian, not like these silly writers and artists.

That's what is actually going on. It's a step-by-step process. After taking a small step Kremlin checks the feedback, and if there's not enough protest, takes another one. Admittedly western bureaucracies sometimes do similar things, so it's the methodical streak of the steps that is really frightening.

The Russian government brutally cracking down on their citizens freedom of expression and restricting their access to the machinery of the government is naughty.

Ahem. After more closer look (LJR administration knew about this manual ("How to screw with children") in mid-January, and did not do anything, only babbled about "freedom of speech") it's more like "dangers of using questionable site for you blog" then "evil regime brutally repressing".

Same thing will happen in the US if anything like SOPA ever becomes law. I mean it's never really about piracy or protecting people from 'harmfull' content, it's about putting controls in place to lock things down if necessary.

Adding Andrei Malgin and Vladimir Pribylovsky to dissident list is truly hilarious.I happen to be Russian trial lawyer, so let me add 2 cents. First, there are many problems with internet control in Russia. Creating it's own DMCA, non-disclosure of blacklist, lack of judicial control etc. These are the points Ars should be writing about. Taking broad perspective to include US and EU practices wouldn't be bad either.Second, blocking ljrussia is dumb, but there is no actual malicious intent. It's just that regulations don't distinguish site, blog or post. Blocking certain content is common all over the world, but when regulator (Roskomnadzor) is dumb - thing like these happen.I'm sure it would be unblocked in a matter of days.

http://www.pirateshost.net/ isn't resolving. Anyone Russian (or familiar with the situation) want to explain to me how a hosting service can get past his?

Just curious; because if they're doing it by some sort of proxy, I'd imagine it wouldn't be very difficult to take down. I'm guessing it's more closer to using a VPN of some sort.

As far as the rest of the article goes, you really can't (and shouldn't) try and stop people from visiting the websites they like to visit. They will find ways around it and it will just make the censoring solution look foolish, all political ideologies aside.

"Back in the fall, the Kremlin put into place a much-derided-from-the-West “Internet blacklist.” When it was launched in November, Moscow blocked access to over 180 sites that it deemed were offensive to Russian interests. In particular, this blacklist was meant as a way to protect minors from pornography sites, sexual abuse sites, and sites that provide details about drug use and suicide"

This is the oldest oldest trick in the book. Usher in a new law that is "about child pornography" i.e "save the children" but tack on a whole bunch of privacy and due process removing clauses and anyone who objects to or want to debate those clauses is "for child pornography" and a monster. They did the same thing with the Un-Patriot Act after 9/11. They just use an excuse "no one can go against" to get their foot in the door but really it's just a red herring of what they're really trying to accomplish.

Why is this news? Are people not familiar with Russia's history? Hey, at least he's not being rounded up and shipped off to Siberia to freeze to death.

By comparison, this is a GOOD day for freedom of speech in Russia.

Well, it was actually never that bad =)

Not yet if it wasn't already. It might ended up that way the bad way if the Russian government don't act on it with an iron hand. See America as a good example of it. When you let this sites hang out too long you'll never be able to stop them. It's a good thing their government get this done.

That's what is actually going on. It's a step-by-step process. After taking a small step Kremlin checks the feedback, and if there's not enough protest, takes another one. Admittedly western bureaucracies sometimes do similar things, so it's the methodical streak of the steps that is really frightening.

I guess you're right, but it's a dumb thing for a government to do 'cause no one cares 'till they block YouTube or something. Then it may end in a flood of hacks and DDoS-attacks on random governmental-run sites and all that stuff which would result in unblocking of the site with saying bs about 'It was blocked by a mistake' or 'Now it's ok. They've removed the content'. No one wins in the end.

Adding Andrei Malgin and Vladimir Pribylovsky to dissident list is truly hilarious.I happen to be Russian trial lawyer, so let me add 2 cents. First, there are many problems with internet control in Russia. Creating it's own DMCA, non-disclosure of blacklist, lack of judicial control etc. These are the points Ars should be writing about. Taking broad perspective to include US and EU practices wouldn't be bad either.Second, blocking ljrussia is dumb, but there is no actual malicious intent. It's just that regulations don't distinguish site, blog or post. Blocking certain content is common all over the world, but when regulator (Roskomnadzor) is dumb - thing like these happen.I'm sure it would be unblocked in a matter of days.

This. I am so tired of western media attributing every unrelated regulatory fuckup to malice and Evil Putin Regime™. Russia has plenty of actual problems to talk about.